Drumming Song
by noxpirata
Summary: "There's a drumming noise inside my head, that starts when you're around" Although they haven't been travelling together very long smuggler and captain Fira and Corso Riggs seem to be getting drawn closer to each other. A series of one shots set in Chapter one, starting from the end of Taris.
1. Drunken Gunplay

She was glad to be getting out of this Force forsaken dump

Not even the amount of alcohol in her system right now could make this place seem good.

She'd even thrown more credits to the people in the dingy hole that passed for a cantina out here.

She didn't care where they were headed next, _anywhere _was better than this.

She heard footsteps, slightly heavier than they would normally be

_Thought he'd gone and slept it off…. Krif, I should probably go and sleep this off… _

She turned her chair around, arms crossed. Corso was standing in the archway leading into the cockpit, leaning against the wall, Fira had to wonder if that was him being suave or him doing his best not to fall over.

_He's completely plastered… _

She said nothing, wondering just where this was going.

"Booy captain…" The slur to his words was obvious, "Travelling with you is making me miss the good ole' days…"

"For Ord Mantel where separatists were bad and guns were good and we could just run in shootin'"

Fira grinned, changing her stance so one hand rested on her hip, an impish grin on her face, "I could be _persuaded _into a little drunken gunplay…" She knew she had a much better grip on how drunk she was than he did, judging from the fact he was trying not to sway.

"I'm not drunk, maaaybe a bit tipsy…" He protested, "I could still bullseye an Imperial solider at a thousand paces…"

He took a step forward, and Fira noticed he lurched just a bit.

"Why don't we have more _fun_ on this ship? Back home when we needed a laugh we used to run the rontos in circles and see if they could charge us without fallin' over…"

Fira could feel the more sensible part of her brain, which right now still decided to be there telling her to be careful, another part was laughing at how absurd this sounded but they were dull whispers compared to…

Fira smirked and titled her head, an impish grin on her face "Got any suggestions that_ don't_ involve farm animals?"

To her surprise he stepped closer to her, "Yeah I do… but it'll take a while to explain'…" He placed his hand on her arm, and looked her in the eyes brown meeting green, and his voice dropped just a touch "Care to let me show you…"

A shiver ran down her spine as he said that, he'd never spoken to her like that, not looked at her like that. She'd caught that look once or twice in his usually gentle looking eyes when they had been in particuarly heavy fights (which was happening more and more often)

She blamed it on the alcohol but she felt a flush of heat run through her and she was aware of how close he was to her, and yes he was on closer inspection rather handsome and how easy it would be just to step a little bit closer and…

But that sensible voice was in her head again… _count to three._

_This is really not the time…_ she ignored it, and stepped herself closer.

But then Corso took a sudden step back and dropped her arm as if it was dangerous.

"Aww… I shouldn'tve said that…" He placed a hand over his face and shook his head

Fira closed the distance between them and grabbed his arms lightly, "Why not?"

She saw him swallow and look away, "It's not right…" He turned back to face her "Me propositionin' you like a Hutt's dancer"

She let go of his arms and put on hand to his chin, tilting his head up slighty "Corso…" she sighed.

She felt as if something didn't happen soon she was going to scream. The more impulsive part of her mind had taken over her alcohol addled brain and was telling her to do something that was probably pretty dumb, but to hell with it…

"I… I mean it Captain," He cupped one of his hands over the one she had placed on his chin and slowly lowered it, he held onto her hand lightly fingertips just touching, and she let him do so. "You deserve better… you deserve a man you can let your guard down with… who will treat you right… take care of you for a change…"

_To hell with what you deserve… go with what you want _the impulsive voice seemed to shout the loudest at this point.

"And where," She put her hand on his cheek, and titled her head slightly "Would I find someone like that?" She lent herself in closer again "Aww c'mon, we'd have _fun_" She was so close to him again, and it didn't seem to help how she was feeling at this moment, nor did the direction her mind kept running in.

"I'm not presuming anything… but I want to show you I have the chance of being something more…" He tried to move back and she let him do so.

Fira wanted to say something, do something. She seemed unusually conflicted; she wasn't sure whether to tell him to knock it off, laugh at him or just grab him and push him up against the nearest wall before he had a chance to say anything else, amongst other suggestions.

But for once in her life the captain was feeling rather tongue-tied and couldn't seem to do anything.

"Corso…" She managed to say with a sigh but the chance to come out with anything else was quashed.

"You know, It's kinda late… probably should go sleep this off…"

And with that he quite promptly (or at least as promptly as a drunk person could) left the cockpit.

She could hear his footsteps echoing through the ship and then all went quiet.

Fira lent her hands on the ship's console, taking comfort in the feel of the familiar structure under her hands, staring out the window, she let out a frustrated sigh and pouted.

"Aww kriff" she said to no one in particular.

She avoided the urge to smack her head into the ship's console, that wouldn't solve her problems and she knew that would give her more of a headache than she had right now_._

_What was that word? _

_Haryc b'aalyc… tired and emotional _

That sounded about right, a tired smile twitched her lips for a moment and she shook her head.

Fit the pair of them right to a tee, things had been going crazy since Ord. The pair of them had been thrown together and she felt as if in the short time they'd been travelling together that she knew he had her back and vice versa. And, although it sounded vain she knew that he clearly liked her more than on the level someone usually liked their captain.

_He's a dumb kid, Fira… not worth wasting your time on. _

That was the voice she seldom listened too, and she had no intention on doing so now.

She shook her head, no she wasn't going to get all tied up in some guy she just met just because he happened to say a few nice things to her. That was not how this worked, smugglers didn't have any more ties than they needed to, it was safer that way, and the only things you could really trust were your ship and your blasters.

_Why did he have to go and make this complicated?_

She wanted to scream in frustration as the rubbed the scar over her eye and pushed a bit of red hair away from her face.

And with a sigh she turned away and went to her own quarters, although she had a feeling she wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight.

* * *

So I decided I wanted to rewrite this fic, then realised I needed to do some bridging work between this and the conversation where you get Flashy. I'm aiming to try and write slightly longer pieces than I have to for this mini-series and hopefully I can stitck to this.

PS Thank you to laloga and clicketykeys for all the reviews/tips and general chatting c:


	2. Morning After

Fira cringed and willed herself to go back to sleep trying to bury her head further into her pillow with little success.

She winced and blearily opened her green eyes to look at the chrono by her bedside and sighed at the time, it was way too early but she felt she wasn't going to get any more sleep and she knew from experience laying around staring at the ceiling would just be aggravating.

With a sigh she groggily stood up noticing the oversized shirt she'd somehow remembered to put on before she crashed out on her bed last night. And she for a moment made some promise she knew she wouldn't keep about not drinking ever again. And she also tried not to think too hard about how much of a wreck she probably looked right now.

And then realisation hit her causing her to sit down and put her head in her hands and cringe.

_I made a complete idiot of myself last night, kriff. _

With a sigh she ran her fingers through her red hair, maybe if she just grabbed a cup of caff or something from the galley she could come back here and then deal with what happened when she was actually awake.

She stood up and walked her feet hardly making a sound on the floor of the ship. So far no one else seemed to be around, she didn't spot Risha she was quite glad of that, not that she didn't like her but she knew that she couldn't deal with her band of gossip this early in the morning.

She stepped into the galley, stopped in her tracks and one word came to mind, well two words.

_Kriffing hell._

She thought about just turning on her heel and going back to her cabin but something kicked in.

_For Kriff's sake woman, get a grip._

So she did, and confidently or as confidently as she could manage stepped into the galley.

Corso was standing there and he wordlessly passed her a cup of caff with a friendly nod. Fira held the cup and thought about just going back with it yet she stood there with a rather uneasy silence between them as she toyed with the cup.

"I'm sorry," She said with some difficulty, "About last night"

"Captain, I dunno why you're apologisin' I'm the one who stepped outta line,"

And right then she wanted to tell him how much he _hadn't_ stepped out of line and that she was perfectly willing to pick up on where they left off, _right now_.

"Corso," She sighed trying to think how to get the words out when Risha popped her head around the door, speaking in a tone of voice that was far too upbeat for so early in the morning "Hey Captain, got our next lead, come to the cockpit and I'll tell you since you're both up so bright and early,"

She sighed and downed a large amount of her caff.

She would decide later if the interruption was a good thing.

* * *

Ever since Risha had told them where they were headed next she had seemed uneasy. She'd also been avoiding him, but he didn't blame her after last night.

He winced at what he remembered from the night before. And he hoped he hadn't stuffed things up between them.

He was worried about his captain.

She was sitting in her captain's chair, however she wasn't sitting in that boot on the console, jacket over the back of the seat stance she usually took. The stance that seemed to show she was staking ownership over the area and she was in control.

Instead she was sitting there fiddling with a datapad and trying to look like she was busy.

"Hey, Captain," He didn't step any further than the archway into the cockpit however as he wasn't sure how Fira would react to him.

"Hey Corso," Fira said not looking up from the datapad.

He felt slightly emboldened and took a few more steps until he was standing halfway there. "You okay?" He asked and then tacked on "I mean, you've not been yourself today," rubbing the back of his neck.

Fira laughed weakly, putting the datapad on the ships console and turning her chair around, "Is it that obvious?" She sighed, "Let's just say NarShaada and I go way back, and I was very glad to see the back of it"

Something connected in Corso's mind.

"You were born there?"

Fira shrugged, "I have a feeling I wasn't but yeah I _grew up_ there… " She turned around again to place her hand on part of the ship's console as if anchoring herself.

She mentally cringed, this was the second time in a very short space of time she had been openly vulnerable.

That was bad, this wasn't her. And she really needed to get a grip, she was a starship captain for kriffs sake not some _child_. But then she actually didn't seem to mind this happening around Corso, she hardly knew the guy but something told her she could trust him.

"There's not much down for me there apart from memories and old scars, it wasn't home,"

_Old scars_

Corso thought to the scar over her eye. He hadn't really noticed it much before now. Well he had, but he'd not paid much mind to it. But now he wondered, and he had a feeling however she'd gotten that scar that the story behind it wasn't good.

"Sorry if brought up bad memories, Captain,"

Fira shrugged, "Past is past, can't change it. Have to face it sooner or later, right?"

There was a pause again; however the silence wasn't as uncomfortable as the one from this morning. Corso thought about taking his leave.

Instead he walked closer and slipped his hand over hers, he was hesitant to do so not sure if maybe he was stepping over a boundary, especially after last night but it seemed the… right thing to do.

To his surprise Fira lightly squeezed his hand in response.

"You gonna be okay?"

"Ah don't worry about me Riggs, I'm a lot tougher than I look." She chuckled weakly. She squeezed his hand again this time linking her fingers with his.

"Besides, I've got you coming with me and there is no one else I'd rather have by my side right now,"

* * *

**Oh look finally an update!**

**For this one I essentially combined two of my older oneshots for this one and then expanded and rewrote and whatever. **

**I'm currently working through a replay of Fira so there may be a bit of a delay with the next few bits as I catch up to that point in game. **


End file.
